Resurface rotors?

[tarmacblack1]

For those who have swapped out brake pads, did you have your rotors resurfaced ? I've just start getting the shudder at 12,500 miles. Thanks for any input.

 

[ChaneRZ]

I didn’t have to resurface mine because I changed the pads at 100 miles in the odo. Get it resurfaced then put aftermarket pads.

 

[stoopid]

For those who have swapped out brake pads, did you have your rotors resurfaced ? I've just start getting the shudder at 12,500 miles. Thanks for any input.

I started having the pad deposit issue around the same time, getting aftermarket pads and doing the bedding in process with the new pads seemed to remove the deposits. No issues since, now at 25,000 miles.

 

[Rob M]

I'm with stoopid.

Except I had 42k miles. Most shops today don't want to bother with resurfacing rotors, but are happy to replace them. These days I'm comfortable with simply replacing pads on a daily driver if the rotor thickness is within spec and wearing relatively smoothly. New pads (I went with Powerstop Z17) felt much better during bedding process and so far afterwards.

 

[Volfy]

If the rotors had some miles on them, resurfacing with new brake pads is never a bad idea. Can you get away with not turning the rotors? Of course.

If my rotors show any scoring or grooving, of if they measure any taper (from inside to outside edge of friction surface), I will for sure get them turned, regardless of how many miles are on them. When I changed the brake pads last September, the rotors were very smooth and had no measurable taper, so I scrubbed off the pad material deposits and re-used them as is. Well, the rears did just fine, but the fronts were not happy. They made noise and pulsed whenever I push the brake pedal with a bit more pressure. Got them turned for $25/rotor - and voila! - smooth as silk.

It's a judgement call. If you do decide to skip resurfacing, I'd suggest you proceed with caution and take it easy, inspect the rotors after every drive, until you are absolutely sure the new pads have seated with the old rotors fully and drama-free. If you encounter any unhappy symptoms, remove the rotors ASAP and get them turned.

A good shop will take off just enough material to achieve a true surface. O'Reily's removed only 0.1-0.2mm from either side of mine.

In any case, the only time when resurfacing old rotors is not a good idea is if they are heavily heat-spotted. Then they are good only for the trash can.

Otherwise, throwing away perfectly re-usable rotors is just a plain waste of money. Properly resurfaced used rotors can be more thermally stable than green new rotors. Repeated heat cycling helps to relieve residue stress from the manufacturing/machining process.

 

[tarmacblack1]

If the rotors had some miles on them, resurfacing with new brake pads is never a bad idea. Can you get away with not turning the rotors? Of course.

If my rotors show any scoring or grooving, of if they measure any taper (from inside to outside edge of friction surface), I will for sure get them turned, regardless of how many miles are on them. When I changed the brake pads last September, the rotors were very smooth and had no measurable taper, so I scrubbed off the pad material deposits and re-used them as is. Well, the rears did just fine, but the fronts were not happy. They made noise and pulsed whenever I push the brake pedal with a bit more pressure. Got them turned for $25/rotor - and voila! - smooth as silk.

It's a judgement call. If you do decide to skip resurfacing, I'd suggest you proceed with caution and take it easy, inspect the rotors after every drive, until you are absolutely sure the new pads have seated with the old rotors fully and drama-free. If you encounter any unhappy symptoms, remove the rotors ASAP and get them turned.
View attachment 77676

A good shop will take off just enough material to achieve a true surface. O'Reily's removed only 0.1-0.2mm from either side of mine.

In any case, the only time when resurfacing old rotors is not a good idea is if they are heavily heat-spotted. Then they are good only for the trash can.

Otherwise, throwing away perfectly re-usable rotors is just a plain waste of money. Properly resurfaced used rotors can be more thermally stable than green new rotors. Repeated heat cycling helps to relieve residue stress from the manufacturing/machining process.

I am in full agreement. I will take it into consideration. Probably be a last minute flip of a coin. Rotors look pretty damn healthy but I don't want shit running through the back of my mind lol.

 

[Rev_Night]

so I am in this same boat. My AWD stinger is at 16K miles, and it has been vibrating/pulsing while braking the last few months. I took it to a safety inspection, and they said the brakes were almost out. These are OEM brakes, but I did take the car to an HDPE last year.

Knowing about this thread and the main rotor sticky, I asked one of the shops if they would resurface the rotors. he said no, the rotors are brembo spec and don't need to be. The issue is with the pads, getting new pads will fix the issue.

I am going to call a 2nd shop tomorrow and ask the same thing: If they will resurface the rotors. If not, I just replace the brakes (oem --> Hawks 5.0) and do the bed-in process as described in the sticky?

 

[Daniel @ K8 Stinger Store]

If you catch it early enough you should be fine. More often than not it is just the brake pads that are the issue. If you are worried about it at all its safer and smarter to just swap it all out. Whichever way you choose, we can help put a brake pad or brake pade and rotor package together for you. Just send us over an email at Sales@K8StingerStore.com and we will get you taken care of.

 

[Volfy]

so I am in this same boat. My AWD stinger is at 16K miles, and it has been vibrating/pulsing while braking the last few months. I took it to a safety inspection, and they said the brakes were almost out. These are OEM brakes, but I did take the car to an HDPE last year.

Knowing about this thread and the main rotor sticky, I asked one of the shops if they would resurface the rotors. he said no, the rotors are brembo spec and don't need to be. The issue is with the pads, getting new pads will fix the issue.

I am going to call a 2nd shop tomorrow and ask the same thing: If they will resurface the rotors. If not, I just replace the brakes (oem --> Hawks 5.0) and do the bed-in process as described in the sticky?

I'm not sure I'm reading you correctly. Did you ask the shop to surface the rotors ONLY? Or to surface the rotor while changing to brand new aftermarket brake pads at the same time?

If it is the latter, then I don't see why they would push back, unless they lack in-house equipment to turn the rotors and don't want to bother taking the rotors to a 3rd party to get resurfaces. A good shop knows resurfacing the rotors with pad change is always the safest way to ensure the new pads have the best chance of working well as intended.

If OTOH you asked them to resurface the rotors only, then I can understand the pushback, as it is indeed counter-productive to resurface rotors ONLY without changing pads. You might intended to change the pads later on, but if they don't know that, they might find it odd.

That said, here's a big caveat... if you had taken your car to an HDPE event last year, you need to inspect your rotors - especially the fronts - very closely. Depending on how severe the pad material transfer was at that time, running your stock brake pads at track pace extensively ran a very high risk of heat spotting the rotors.

Google for images of rotor heat spotting, and you'll find images like this:

If any of your rotors show signs of heat spotting like this, then you'd be better advised to change rotors.

 

[baws22489]

my 2022 car with 12k miles had been vibrating when braking so when i took it to the dealer for its oil change i told them to check the pads\rotors. He told me the rotors needed re-surfacing which I know from here was wrong, he said the pads were fine. I said i know the issue is the pads but let him turn the rotors anyway at $100/each. a little over 1k miles later the vibrating returned. So i contacted the K8 stinger store that advertises here to get new pads. I had them installed 2 weeks ago which seems to have helped the vibrating. My concern is that the rotors got bad again after getting them turned. Any thoughts if the rotors can get deposits after 1-1.5k miles and I might have issues or the new pads will remove any deposits during break in? Its been about 400 miles since the new pads and it seems 99% better, some times I think i feel a slight shaking but nothing bad like before.

 

[Brichinelo]

I started having the pad deposit issue around the same time, getting aftermarket pads and doing the bedding in process with the new pads seemed to remove the deposits. No issues since, now at 25,000 miles.

What does the bedding process consist of again ? Couple stops from 60 mph pumping the brakes. And then cruise without stopping ?

 

[bfglitch]

Pad manufacturer may have bed in procedures on their site or box. But usually it's something like getting up to about 60+mph hitting the brakes pretty hard but not hard enough to trip the ABS and with steady pressure until you hit about 20mph get back up to speed, repeat. Do it at least 3, 4...maybe 5 times basically enough to get everything pretty hot. When you're done with the procedure drive around without stopping and trying not to use the brakes until they're cooled off.

 

[stoopid]

Pad manufacturer may have bed in procedures on their site or box. But usually it's something like getting up to about 60+mph hitting the brakes pretty hard but not hard enough to trip the ABS and with steady pressure until you hit about 20mph get back up to speed, repeat. Do it at least 3, 4...maybe 5 times basically enough to get everything pretty hot. When you're done with the procedure drive around without stopping and trying not to use the brakes until they're cooled off.

I followed what they provided in the box/instructions.

 

[Brichinelo]

Pad manufacturer may have bed in procedures on their site or box. But usually it's something like getting up to about 60+mph hitting the brakes pretty hard but not hard enough to trip the ABS and with steady pressure until you hit about 20mph get back up to speed, repeat. Do it at least 3, 4...maybe 5 times basically enough to get everything pretty hot. When you're done with the procedure drive around without stopping and trying not to use the brakes until they're cooled off.

I’ll give that a try since. I have a set of ceramic brake pads from k8. I’ll just follow this procedure . Thanks

 

[Volfy]

Bear in mind that you should always "break in" or "seat" the pad to the rotor BEFORE you attempt the bedding-in process. Drive- and brake - very gently at first and avoid hard panic stops. Examine each rotor very closely to see if the whole wear surface on the rotor has been swiped by the pad, after each driving session. The reason for this is that the brake pads need to be making full and even contact with the rotor wear surface first. This then allows the pads to heat up evenly across the entire wear area, in order to set/activate the pad compound for best performance, which is the whole point of bedding in the pads. If you start the bedding-in process as soon as the new pads are installed, they may not yet be making full contact with the rotor. You run the risk of over-heating and glazing the contacting portion(s) and not setting the compound correctly on the portion(s) that are not making good contact. This can be worse than if you just don't do the bedding-in at all.

Some mfrs have break-in layer to help this process and to scrub the rotor wear surface, especially if you chose not to resurface the rotors. EBC has them in some pad compounds: How To Bed-In Your EBC Brakes For Street Or Track Use - EBC Brakes Bedding-in instructions can also vary according to the intended application. Always look first to the mfr of your brake pads for instructions specific to your pads.

 

[Snicklefritz]

my approach was to follow the stinger owner's manual, which agrees with what @Volfy said about going easy at first. I never did bed in the oem pads and have never had any vibration with my brakes in well over 50,000 miles. also I do not ever use the brakes hard except a handful of times in a situation almost like an emergency and never track the car.

 

[Volfy]

@Snicklefritz is correct. While seating the pads to the rotors is absolutely necessary for every brake pad type, regardless of pad compounds or application, a regimented bedding-in procedure may not be necessary for some. Most OEM pads on everyday vehicles fall in to this category. Exceptions are some very high-performance vehicles that come stock with compounds meant for more rigorous use.

It's all about optimizing the pads for the heat range they are intended to operate in. Prolonged track pace generates a tremendous amount of heat, which is why the OEM pads are not well-suited. That's when you need to consider a higher heat range pad compound and be prepared to follow mfr instructions on bedding in.

Disregarding the marketing hype, Stinger was designed as a grand turismo car, not a dedicated track machine. I drove on the OEM pads for more than 1-1/2yrs. If it wasn't for the track day last September, I would've kept using them. As much as folks hate them, they were quiet, generated next to no dust, and perform adequately for everyday commuting. I drive very gently on the street, but I did do a couple of AutoX events on OEM pads. Five 50sec runs spread over 1-1/2 hrs is not going to heat the brakes up hot enough to bother them. Ultimately, it's the pad material deposits that raise concern. Perfectly fine if not driven hard extensively; however, if you do, you run the risk of heat spotting the rotors.